Skip to content
Description
By: Yuval Kremnitzer | Series: Short Circuits
An analysis of contemporary authoritarianism and the medium in which it flourishes, the internet, as well as what lies at the complex intersection of authority and technology.
In recent decades, a new style of authoritarian politics has taken hold throughout the liberal-democratic world. The new style of authority figures is characterized by obscene, transgressive, behavior, reminiscent of the “crowd” leader as theorized by Freud, only far less transient. In The Emperor's New Nudity, Yuval Kremnitzer considers the fraught intersection of authority and technology—the internet being the medium that has allowed contemporary authoritarianism to thrive—asking foundational questions, such as: How can we think of the network as a social phenomenon? What can social and political phenomena teach us about the nature of the new technology? And, how does technology reshape the very fabric of social and political life?
Technology leads us towards an impersonal and hyper-rational world, to such an extent that it renders human subjectivity outmoded, Kremnitzer writes. Authority, on the other hand, anchors our subjective identifications to certain figures and seems to be hopelessly primitive and irrational. What is required, then, is a dialectics of the primal—a study of the way in which what strikes us as essential enters into the dynamics of historical change. From this perspective, authority and technology can be said to be divided by a common object—the unwritten law, and the special knowledge that pertains to it: a knowledge without knowers.
An analysis of contemporary authoritarianism and the medium in which it flourishes, the internet, as well as what lies at the complex intersection of authority and technology.
In recent decades, a new style of authoritarian politics has taken hold throughout the liberal-democratic world. The new style of authority figures is characterized by obscene, transgressive, behavior, reminiscent of the “crowd” leader as theorized by Freud, only far less transient. In The Emperor's New Nudity, Yuval Kremnitzer considers the fraught intersection of authority and technology—the internet being the medium that has allowed contemporary authoritarianism to thrive—asking foundational questions, such as: How can we think of the network as a social phenomenon? What can social and political phenomena teach us about the nature of the new technology? And, how does technology reshape the very fabric of social and political life?
Technology leads us towards an impersonal and hyper-rational world, to such an extent that it renders human subjectivity outmoded, Kremnitzer writes. Authority, on the other hand, anchors our subjective identifications to certain figures and seems to be hopelessly primitive and irrational. What is required, then, is a dialectics of the primal—a study of the way in which what strikes us as essential enters into the dynamics of historical change. From this perspective, authority and technology can be said to be divided by a common object—the unwritten law, and the special knowledge that pertains to it: a knowledge without knowers.
You may also like
熱銷中 Top Trending
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the Triple Goddess International Edition
Sale priceHK$89.00
Regular priceHK$140.00
In stock
Press Start! #15 Mega Mole Girl Digs Deep! (Branches)
Sale priceHK$48.00
Regular priceHK$98.00
In stock
Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5 Book Paperback Boxed Set (w/poster)
Sale priceHK$287.00
Regular priceHK$450.00
In stock
Spidey and His Amazing Friends: A Little Hulk Trouble
Sale priceHK$57.00
Regular priceHK$90.00
In stock
Press Start! #14 Super Game Book! Special Edition (Branches)
Sale priceHK$48.00
Regular priceHK$80.00
In stock
Harry Potter (正版) Children #1-7 Collection (7 Books)(J.K. Rowling)(printed in UK)
Sale priceFrom HK$469.00
Regular priceHK$799.00
In stock
National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Space
Sale priceFrom HK$96.00
Regular priceHK$150.00
In stock
The Gruffalo and Other Stories (with QR code audio)(8 Books)(Julia Donaldson)(Axel Scheffler)
Sale priceHK$239.00
Regular priceHK$768.00
In stock